


Holds On

by Anony_Authr



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Blackmail, Dark One's Dagger (Once Upon a Time), F/M, Humiliation, Woobie Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-23
Updated: 2020-08-23
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:14:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26073982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anony_Authr/pseuds/Anony_Authr
Summary: Set in a divergent universe where Zelena finds her way to Storybrooke during the first curse shortly after Cora is defeated and decides to take her revenge on Rumple. Using Bae as leverage, she forces Rumple to hand over the dark one's dagger to her. Belle is left heartbroken after Rumple is compelled to tell her he doesn't love her. Emma and Bae work to investigate the truth of the matter. Zelena works to destroy Rumple and shape him into her willing slave.The scenes between Zelena and Rumple won't have graphic torture or non-con, but it will at least be heavily implied and there will be lots of humiliation of Rumple.
Relationships: Baelfire | Neal Cassidy & Belle, Baelfire | Neal Cassidy/Emma Swan, Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold/Wicked Witch of the West | Zelena
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Holds On

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Freeze on the Stones](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2245713) by [Robin4](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Robin4/pseuds/Robin4). 



“Come alone to the Jolly Roger at midnight and tell no one of this message if you ever want to see your son again. Especially not Belle or the Sheriff.”  
  
Rumple stared blankly at the text he had just received along with the picture underneath of his precious boy blindfolded and bound to a chair. He looked closely at the picture, trying to find clues as to Bae’s location, but all he could tell was that Bae was in the corner of a painted grey room. It looked like an average basement and could belong to any of the houses in Storybrooke. The father knew he would follow the orders from the mysterious number, he couldn’t risk his son’s health for his own, but he knew there was still no guarantee that his compliance would ensure his son’s safety. Rumple zoomed in on his son and was reassured to see that he had no visible injuries, for however long that would last. If they did have something to do with Hook, which seemed likely from the meeting location, Rumple swore he would torture that wretched pirate until he begged for death before tying him to his ship and scuttling it.  
  
With shaking fingers, Rumple began to type a response. “I will be there, but I want your guarantee that you will release my son if I cooperate.” Worried that they might take their anger out on his boy, Rumple considered changing the text to be more compliant. However, he knew if they thought he would just roll-over and let them do what they want, his boy would be in an even more precarious position. After two tries, he finally managed to press the “send” button down hard enough to deliver his message. With nothing else to do but wait, Rumple slowly moved to the back room of his shop and sat down heavily on his cot, keeping his eyes on his phone the entire time waiting for a reply.  
  
After the longest five minutes of his life, a new message popped up: “We will discuss the terms of his release tonight. You will have to trust us as we are trusting you. However, I do give you my guarantee that if you do not follow my instructions, your son will die tonight and we will try this again with Belle.”  
  
Rumple quickly sucked in a deep breath at the thought of his son dying. His thoughts began racing, spinning around his head, but every time he tried to grab one of them they spun out of his grip and went racing back off with the others. All he could see were images of his son’s still and cold body lying beside Belle’s. He was jerked from his stupor when he heard the shop bell ring and realized almost two hours had passed.  
  
In a daze, Rumple went out and dealt with the customer – a simple request to have their loan rate reduced which he denied. Rumple passed the rest of the day in a blur, going through the motions of his usual tasks but unable to recall what he had just done five minutes prior. He returned home and Belle noticed he was more reticent than usual, but was willing to let it drop when he claimed he was feeling a bit under the weather. This also provided the perfect excuse for him to sleep in a separate room than Belle and so she didn’t notice when he slipped out the door at 11pm.  
  
By 11:30pm, Rumple had arrived at the Jolly Roger. He paced along the docks for a few minutes, he had arrived earlier by intent - not wanting to give them an excuse to hurt Bae if he arrived late and hoping he might be able to find some information that could help him rescue Bae. There was no one else on the docks, so Rumple slowly crept closer to the Jolly Roger. He could see light seeping out from the Captain’s quarters and decided to stride towards it. Deciding it was close enough to midnight that he could just claim to be early to the meeting if he was spotted, but hoping no one would spot him and he would be able to wait outside a few minutes and eavesdrop. That plan was ruined spectacularly when as soon as Rumple stepped foot on the Jolly Roger his entire body went rigid and he recognized the paralyzing effects of squid ink.  
  
“Hello, Rumple.” He heard a woman’s voice coo in his ear. Cora? He thought for a second before remembering she was truly dead this time and the inflection wasn’t quite correct. Out of the corner of his eye he could make out a flash of red hair and her name and his memories of her poured into his mind – it was Zelena. The other Mills daughter who he had trained and considered having cast his curse. Until, that is, he realized she was in love with him and so could never sacrifice the heart of the thing she loved most. She was powerful, but she was no match for the Dark One, he knew as soon as the squid ink wore off he would be able to overpower her and force her to bring him to Bae. He just had to bide his time.  
  
“Now then, here’s what’s going to happen. Once you can move, you will go to your darling Belle and tell her that your relationship with her is over. You have fallen in love with another woman and you don’t love Belle. You will tell her that you intend to marry me and couldn’t wait any longer. Feel free to tell her that you have been seeing me in secret if she doubts you and summon your dagger to show that no-one is controlling you.”  
  
Rumple snarled at Zelena, “I never took you for an idiot, but if you truly think I will tell Belle all that nonsense and that she will believe me for an instant, you’ve lost it.”  
  
“Ah, I wasn’t finished yet. I will be watching you the entire time and if you aren’t successful in convincing her of your love for me, I will have our mutual friend Captain Hook crush your son’s heart.” Zelena conjured a two-way image showing Captain Hook standing next to Bae and holding a glowing red heart in his hand, giving it a little squeeze when he saw Zelena.  
  
Rumple felt as if it was his own heart being held in Hook’s hands. His breath sped up and he felt his palms begin to sweat in response to seeing his boy at the mercy of the pirate, when he knew well that the pirate was both honorless and merciless.  
  
“After you tell Belle the good news,” Zelena continued, “you will bring me your dagger and we will go to the courthouse to be wed. Then and only then, I will replace your sons heart and release him. I will be in constant communication with Captain Hook until then and if you disobey me or give any indication to others that your actions are not of your choosing, your son’s heart will be crushed.”  
  
“Or, I could use my magic and force you to bring me to Bae,” Rumple growled at Zelena, trying hard not to think about how much danger his son was in or the power he would be giving up over his own autonomy if she had the dagger.  
  
“You could try that once the ink wears off, sure, but if you managed to over-power me, your son’s life would instantly become forfeit. Do you truly think Captain Hook would hesitate for a second to take his revenge on you by killing Bae if you break the terms of our agreement? The only reason he is even willing to release the boy alive is because I have promised him some time with you to avenge his Milah.” Zelena reached out and brushed Rumple’s hair away from his eyes before letting both her hands rest on his shoulders. “Now, do we have a deal?”  
  
Rumple felt himself tensing under her possessive touch and tried rapidly to think through any alternatives he could find. Without knowing where his son was being kept, if Hook decided to crush his heart, he would never be able to get there in time to stop him. Although he doubted Hook would hurt Bae if Rumple captured Zelena, it seemed more likely he would try to use him as leverage like Zelena had done, Rumple wasn’t willing to take the risk of his son being hurt if he made an obvious move against Zelena. Perhaps he could try to poison her with something that would have a delayed effect? Once she had his dagger, she could force him to heal her, but if he could just think of something that there was no antidote for that would take a day to show any symptoms, it could work. Of course, he would have to also find some way to infect her with it, maybe he could place it on the pen they used to sign the marriage certificate or put it on his dagger before passing it over? Rumple felt a sudden yank on his hair pulling his head backwards and exposing his throat.  
  
“Well?” Zelena murmured into his ear, “what will it be? Do you truly love your son or are you too much of a coward to save him?”  
  
“I’ll do it,” the distraught father snapped back at her, knowing he didn’t truly have any other options.  
  
“Glad to hear it.” Zelena smiled and released him, stepping back a few spaces to perform a monitoring spell on him. “Now, then. The squid ink should wear off in a few minutes. Once it does, I expect you to immediately leave to tell Belle the good news and then return to me with your dagger. I will be in the Captain’s quarters of the Jolly Roger watching you. Don’t forget, your son’s life is resting on your acting abilities.”  
  
Rumple tilted his up and jutted his chin out in a false display of bravado. He refused to respond to Zelena, not willing to let her know how much terror and hatred were coursing through him. Shortly after Zelena left to go to the Captain’s quarters, Rumple felt the last of the squid ink wear off and his magic return to him. He longed to destroy the Jolly Roger, to storm in after her and tear Zelena to pieces, but he knew he needed to maintain control over himself if he didn’t want his boy to have to suffer on account of the Dark One’s temper like he had so many times in the past. Taking another deep breath, Rumple braced himself before transporting back to his house.  
  
“Belle,” Rumple called gently as he shook Belle’s shoulder. “Belle, swee–sorry, sorry to have to wake you like this.”  
  
“Rumple? What is it? What’s going on? Is Storybrooke under attack?”  
  
“No, no, nothing like that. I just have something I need to tell you and I can’t wait any longer.” Rumple glanced off to the side, unable to meet Belle’s eyes and trying to bring up the image of Bae bound to a chair in his mind to give him the strength needed to break her heart. “I’m sorry, so sorry. It’s just that I can’t keep doing this any longer…it’s not fair to you… I don’t,” Rumple cleared his throat, “I don’t love you anymore.”  
  
“I don’t understand. Rumple, did I do something?” Belle asked groggily.  
  
“It’s not you, there was nothing you did wrong.” Rumple paused to try to control his trembling voice, “there was a woman, Zelena, who I knew back in the Enchanted Forest before I met you. We had fallen in l-love, but then she had to leave and I didn’t think I would ever see her again. However, she found a way to travel to Storybrooke using a portal and when I saw her… I realized that my heart belongs to her. I will always cherish the time we had together,” Rumple dared to glance briefly at Belle’s face, hoping she could read the sincerity in his expression, but quickly glanced away again in pain, “but it was not meant to be. Zelena has asked me to marry her, and I must accept.”  
  
Rumple felt his heart shatter and drop to the bottom of his gut as he glimpsed Belle’s tear-stricken face. “Are you-, I thought-,” Belle cut herself off as a horrifying thought occurred to her, “Rumple, does someone else have your dagger?”  
  
“No,” he shook his head and smiled sadly as he summoned his dagger to appear in his hand. “And, before you ask, my heart is protected against compulsion, but I can bring it out and show it to you if you would like?”  
  
“That’s not necessary,” Belle replied quietly, half feeling as though she would wake up tomorrow and this would all turn out to be a terrible nightmare. “If you truly love her, if you feel that you are better off with her, then I wish you the best of luck,” Belle replied, her voice breaking at the end. She reached out to grab Rumple’s hands, wanting to have one last form of contact with him before he left her life. “I will miss you. I love you, Rumple, and I will always be here if you need me.”  
  
Gripping her hands tightly, Rumple replied, “I know. I-I will miss you as well,” before transporting himself away to the docks. Worried if he stayed a moment longer, he would blurt out the truth and condemn his son to death. He could only hope that after Belle had some time to think and come to terms with what happened she would pick up on the clues he tried to drop in his earlier words. Rumple took a moment to re-center himself as he walked slowly back to the Jolly Roger, keenly aware that Zelena was watching his every move and undoubtable reveling in his distress, but unable to bear the thought of seeing her at the moment.  
  
He knocked on the door to the cabin’s quarters, “Zelena,” he snarled, “I’ve brought the dagger and broken up with Belle as you requested. I hope you enjoyed the show.”  
  
“Oh, I most certainly did, darling.” Zelena replied as she sauntered up to him, extending her hand out for him to place the dagger in.  
  
Rumple hesitated, “how do I know you won’t just kill Bae after I give you my dagger?”  
  
“Why would I want to get rid of such an effective weapon against you so early? Your son is your greatest weakness. As long as he is alive, I will always know I have an easy way to control you if I need to,” Zelena simpered. “He will be released, as I promised, once you uphold your end of the deal. I want him alive, sure, but I can’t be bothered with making sure he is fed and all those other needs are taken care of… I’ll leave that to Emma, since she is the closest thing to family he will have left.”  
  
Reaching out slowly, Rumple placed his dagger in her palm, very aware that he had not yet had time to set any sort of trap for her. Perhaps now that she has the dagger she will let her guard down? After all, he had been very careful not to let information about the control the dagger exerted over him be spread. He might be able to lull her into a false sense of security and control and then find a way to escape her, or at least let Belle know the truth of his actions.  
  
“Very good, Rumple. Now, I believe the proper place for a slave in front of his mistress is on his knees, hmm?” Zelena raised one eyebrow imperiously and stared him down.  
  
Since she hadn’t actually given him a command, Rumple ignored her and instead demanded, “Release my son.”  
  
“You do not give the orders here. On your knees.”  
  
The Dark One fell heavily to his knees, unable to resist the control of his dagger, but the father wasn’t willing to give up on his son so quickly. “You promised you would release him, now fulfill your end of the bargain.”  
  
“If you’ll recall, I promised to release him after you gave me this lovely dagger and signed our marriage certificate. And, since it is so late at night, I fear we will have to wait until the morning to find witnesses and sign that document.”  
  
“Please,” Rumple begged, willing to place his son’s safety over his dignity without hesitation. “You have my dagger, you know that I must obey and will sign the certificate whenever you want. Bae is not necessary to ensure my compliance.”  
  
“Hmm,” Zelena reached out and traced the outline of Rumple’s jaw with the tip of the dagger. “Perhaps if you show me how well behaved you can be, I will consider releasing him early as a wedding present. From now on, there are a few rules I want you to follow: Whenever you address me, I want you to call me mistress and kneel before me. I also think it would be nice if you kneel whenever you are in my presence unless if I specifically give you leave to stand or walk. And, I want you to kiss my boots and say ‘thank you’ whenever I do something nice for you.” Zelena finished by pointedly placing her right foot closer to him and raising an eyebrow questioningly.  
  
There was no compulsion forcing him to follow her requests, Rumple knew she had phrased everything carefully so that he could choose not to debase himself if he wanted. However, if there was even the slightest chance that would see Bae released earlier, he was willing to co-operate fully. Shoving down his pride, Rumple bowed his head in defeat.  
  
“Thank you, mistress,” Rumple muttered as he leaned forward and quickly kissed her boot. He heard Zelena laugh, reveling in the power she held currently and swore to himself that he would see her defeated.  
  
“Very good, pet,” Zelena cooed to him before transporting them both back to her old farmhouse. There, she continued to forced Rumple to humiliate himself for the next hour before deciding he had earned his reward. She bound him to the floor of her bedroom and enchanted a mirror so that he could watch as she returned Bae’s heart and then released him outside of Granny’s diner in the heart of Storybrooke. Zelena untied Bae’s hands, but left his blindfold on so that he would not know who it was that kidnapped him. Rumple longed to watch his son longer and ensure he made it to safety, but Zelena returned at that moment and removed the spell before returning her attention back to Rumple. With his son safe, Rumple refused to cooperate in his own humiliation anymore and by the time the sun rose the next morning, he found himself twitching in pain and praying fervently that at least Belle and Bae would be safe, unlike himself.  
  
Unbeknownst to Rumple, upon finding himself in Storybrooke in the middle of the night, Bae immediately made his way to Emma’s. He was reluctant to wake her at the ridiculously early time of 2am, but as both the sheriff and his ex-girlfriend -although he was still hopeful that might change- he knew that every minute counted when it came to tracking down who had kidnapped him. Bae also couldn’t help but wonder why they had decided to let him go so suddenly. He rapped on the door to Emma’s apartment, hoping that she would be the one to answer it and idly rubbing the blindfold he had removed from himself earlier against his fingers.  
  
Fortunately, Emma answered the door after a few more minutes. Her residual grogginess vanished instantly upon seeing Bae at her door and noticing the rope burns around his wrist. “Neal, what are you doing here?” She questioned.  
  
“Emma, I’m sorry to wake you up. I need to talk with you in your role as the Sheriff. Yesterday, when I was walking by the park I was hit over the back of my head and knocked unconscious,” Bae unconsciously rubbed the back of his head, “When I came to… I was bound to a chair and blindfolded. No one interacted or talked with me, although I could hear someone else in the room breathing, until I was suddenly untied and found myself standing outside of Granny’s diner a few minutes ago.”  
  
As soon as Bae paused speaking, Emma immediately invited him in to her living room while she grabbed a pad of paper and a pen to take notes on his case. She asked him a few more questions, trying to determine if he had seen or heard anything that could help narrow down their suspects, before asking him to roll up his sleeves and pants to take pictures for evidence. After she had collected as much information as possible at the moment, Bae took Emma up on her offer to let him sleep on her couch in the safety of her apartment and knowing there would be someone nearby if he needed to talk with her.  
  
The next morning, Emma explained Bae’s story to her parents and officially opened an investigation into his kidnapping. They began by retracing Bae’s steps from the day before, but couldn’t find any clues at the park nor witnesses. Their brainstorming sessions for possible motives kept circling back to Rumplestiltskin somehow thinking he could force Bae to forgive him by kidnapping him. The best theory they had so far was that he was planning to cast a curse on Bae; however, it failed for some reason and so Bae was released. They both agreed that it was worth at least talking with Bae’s father to see if he would tell them anything.  
  
Emma pushed the door to the pawnshop open and preceded Bae into the room. “Mr. Gold, are you in here?” She called out into the seemingly empty shop.  
  
“I’ll be with you in a minute, dearie,” they heard Rumple respond from the back room. While waiting, Emma scanned around the shop idly, hoping she might find some rope or other obvious clue but knowing it couldn’t possibly be that easy.  
  
“Bae,” Rumple said softly, freezing just as he moved from the back room to the rest of the shop and staring at his son with soft eyes.  
  
“You look terrible, Papa,” Bae said in shock the moment his father appeared from the back room. Emma simply stared silently at Gold, he reminded her of when she found him beating up Moe French. Underneath his frozen exterior, he looked like he was barely containing panic and grief. The dark circles under his eyes and general paleness weren’t helping matters any.  
  
“Bae, it’s good to see you.” Rumple greeted, seemingly oblivious to everything else including Bae’s earlier statement.  
  
“Mr. Gold, I have some questions for you concerning your whereabouts yesterday afternoon. Where were you from 2-4pm yesterday?” Emma cut-in, wanting to see how Gold would react.  
  
Rumple’s eyes flickered briefly to Emma when she spoke before turning back to stare at Bae who was starting to get a bit uncomfortable with the longing and sad look in his father’s eyes.  
  
“Mr. Gold, did you hear me?” The sheriff pushed further when she did not get any response from Rumple.  
  
“Yes, yes.” He replied with a wave in Emma’s direction, “I was at the shop yesterday afternoon.” Rumple suspected then that Bae had told Emma as much as he could about his kidnapping and they were trying to track down the perpetrators. And oh, how he wished he could help them. But, Zelena had ordered Rumple to act normal today, except for his break-up with Belle and imminent marriage to Zelena, and forbade him from telling anyone he was not in control of his own actions and had any knowledge about Bae’s kidnapping. However, with Bae now free, Rumple couldn’t help but hope the Savior would be able to detect his lies if she asked him the right questions and could put the pieces together. As embarrassing as it would be to have to be rescued from Zelena by the Charming’s daughter, Rumple would gladly suffer that indignity if it meant he would not have to spend one more moment with the disgusting witch.  
  
“What time did you leave the shop?”  
  
“At 6pm to return to dinner with Belle. My routine yesterday was the same as every day,” Rumple replied.  
  
Emma shot Rumple a quizzical look when her internal lie-detector went off on his second statement, but considering no two days are exactly the same, she shrugged it off as just due to natural variation between days.  
  
“Did you see your son at all yesterday?”  
  
“No,” Rumple responded, finally turning to stare directly at Emma and willing her to follow-up on his blatant lie.  
  
“You know I can tell when you’re lying, right?”  
  
“I do.”  
  
“Did you cause any harm to Neal yesterday?”  
  
“No,” Rumple responded desolately, knowing it wouldn’t be interpreted as a lie even though Bae wouldn’t have been hurt if it wasn’t for him.  
  
Emma decided to go all-in to try to get to the bottom of the mixed messages she was receiving from Gold, “Were you involved in kidnapping him yesterday?”  
  
“No, I didn’t know he was kidnapped.” Rumple returned, willingly following Zelena’s orders to the letter in denying all knowledge of it.  
  
Emma frowned, “do you know who held him?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Do you truly care for your son so little? Why aren’t you telling us who it was?” Bae shot Emma a surprised look, curious why she seemed to still believe his dad was involved.  
  
“I can’t,” Rumple choked, “tell you what I don’t know,” he continued quickly.  
  
“Did you plan for him to be taken?”  
  
“No.”  
  
“Look, Gold. I would really rather not continue this game of 20-20 questions with you. Why don’t you just tell me the truth.”  
  
“Believe me, dearie. I would if I could.” Rumple continued, “but I don’t know anything about the kidnapping.”  
  
“Papa, what’s going on?”  
  
“Bae, always remember that I love you, son.” Rumple replied with a sigh, returning his gaze back to his son unsure of when he might get to see him again next. Zelena had arranged for Rumple to sign their marriage certificate during his usual lunch break and he wasn’t sure if she would allow him to return to the shop afterwards. She had made it clear that she intended to parade him around as her husband and wanted everyone in Storybrooke to know that they were now married, it seemed unlikely she would let him hide away in his shop all day. Belle had already moved out of their house this morning, taking all of her stuff back to her apartment, and Bae had his own apartment that he lived in, refusing to allow his father to provide him with free housing.  
  
“That’s not an answer, Gold.”  
  
Rumple simply shrugged at Emma.  
  
“Right. Well, if you decide to start actually answering my questions truthfully, please give me a call.” Emma left her business card with Mr. Gold on her way out. He almost certainly already had her phone number, but she wanted to make sure he couldn’t use that as an excuse for not contacting her.  
  
“Bae,” Rumple called out right before Bae followed Emma out, “son, I’m sorry. I hope you can forgive me one day.” There was so much more Rumple wanted to say to Bae, but he could feel the chains of the dagger’s control tightening around him, cutting off his vocal chords and forcing his mouth to clamp shut. Bae simply nodded his head at his father before turning and following Emma outside.  
  
Rumple returned to the back room to finish polishing the new candlesticks he had acquired, watching the minutes on the clock slowly tick closer to when he would become further bound with Zelena. In an attempt to minimize the amount of power Zelena would be acquiring, Rumple had tried to give over all of his business holdings to Belle, but the dagger had put a quick end to that. His actions were too far outside the parameters allowed by Zelena’s commands.  
  
After a far too short infinity, the clock struck noon and Rumple felt the dagger’s compulsion draw him towards the courthouse. Upon arriving, he was greeted by two of Zelena’s monkeys temporarily transformed back into their original human form to be their witnesses. The group of captives made their way to Zelena and the officiary where Rumple was presented with their marriage contract. He read through it carefully, noticing that it gave Zelena rights to all of his money and assets under the claim of providing spousal support if they were to divorce. And, if they were to divorce within 5 years or after she had given birth to a child – Rumple tried to hide his shudder upon reading that – then she would own everything of his and he would owe her a debt of a million dollars, which could be paid off by him working for her for 20 years as her personal servant.  
  
Rumple deliberately set the documents down on the judge’s desk with that last clause clearly visible, hoping that the judge might see it and realize there was something strange about this marriage since Rumple himself could not even make a verbal protest against it. However, from the vacant look in the judge’s eyes, Rumple assumed Zelena had cast a type of befuddling spell on him to get him to go along with this whole thing without questions. All too soon, Rumple found himself signing the document, compelled by Zelena’s will – and her hand on his dagger carefully hidden inside her jacket. Zelena soon followed him and the judge pronounced them man and wife. Rumple glared sharply at the judge when he added the infamous “you may kiss the bride” at the end.  
  
“What a marvelous idea. Well, go ahead darling, sweep me off my feet and kiss me like your life depends on it,” Zelena smiled at the Dark One.  
  
Despite his best efforts to resist the compulsion, Rumple watched in horror as his arms reached out to pick-up Zelena and match his lips to hers. The shooting pain in his ankle was a welcome distraction from her lips on his, but it wasn’t enough to allow him to detach fully. Rumple was harshly thrust back into the moment when he felt Zelena’s tongue poke between his lips. He felt the urge to throw up, but instinctively started pushing it back before realizing it could actually work to his favor. If he was really lucky, he could make Zelena so disgusted by him that she would want nothing further to do with him. However, the chains from the dagger constricted and wouldn’t let him give in to his body, nor could he seem to make his teeth work to bite down on her tongue. Finally, Zelena released him and they were both left gasping for air. Zelena thanked the judge before leading Rumple back to his house with her.  
  
“We’ll have to do something about the color, darling,” Zelena called as she sauntered up to his Victorian house. “If you want to keep it a vibrant color, hmm, perhaps green? Yes, I think that will work very nicely.”  
  
Rumple stared straight ahead in stony silence, refusing to interact with her without being forced by his dagger.  
  
“You will call the contractors tomorrow and arrange for the house to be re-painted as soon as possible. I’m sure we’ll be too busy today getting to know each other to have any time for business,” Zelena cooed.  
  
Once they were both inside and the door had shut behind Rumple, Zelena held up the Dark One’s dagger, and Rumple immediately felt a wave of pain hit him. He curled towards his stomach and sucked in a quick breath of air to keep from crying out.  
  
“What was that for, dearie?” Rumple asked through clenched teeth.  
  
“You’ve been very poorly behaved, pet. Why are you still standing? And what did I tell you to address me by?” Zelena raised the dagger threateningly. However, Rumple merely stared back at her, refusing to be treated like a slave in his own home. He knew that eventually she would grow tired of this and just force him to behave as she wanted, but as long as it was because of the dagger that he was obeying and not due to his own cowardice and well-developed survival instinct, he would be able to retain some tattered remnants of his pride.  
  
“Very well, I see a demonstration is in order.” Zelena flicked the dagger and Rumple felt his arms snap up and out and his body go rigid. No matter how much he screamed at his arms, he couldn’t get them to return down to his sides, he couldn’t even turn his head. The only parts of his body Rumple still had control over were his eyes and lungs, although he didn’t dare take his eyes off Zelena, bracing himself for what might come next.  
  
Zelena sauntered towards Rumple and trailed her free hand up his vest before running her thumb along his jaw. “You are mine, Rumple. I control whether you can talk, whether you can move. Everything I give you is a privilege that you have to earn through good behavior. And right now, you haven’t even earned the right to wear clothes.” She slid her hand back to the top of his vest, allowing her fingers to play idly with his top button.  
  
The captive Dark One had frozen as soon as Zelena touched him, not even daring to take a breath. As she began her tirade, he tried once more to move his body, desperate to move away from her groping, but it was futile. When Rumple heard Zelena’s words, he forgot about his plan to retain his dignity and opened his mouth to plead with her. Only to forget that he couldn’t control his body and instead his pleas came out as a garbled moan.  
  
“I knew you would agree with me,” Zelena smirked at him before deciding to end her teasing. She tucked his dagger into her boot and then reached back up with both hands to unbutton the top of his vest. Slowly, methodically, she worked her way down his vest, until it was left gaping open. Rumple tried once more to plead with her, well aware of where she was going with this, but was again unable to form any words.  
  
“Shhh,” Zelena mockingly comforted him, pushing his hair back from his temple with her hands and pressing a light kiss against it. Rumple felt tears of helplessness and frustration begin to form and began blinking desperately to hold them back. Unsuccessfully. First one tear ran down his right cheek and then the floodgates opened and he had clear tear tracks running down both sides of his face. “Delicious,” Zelena murmured as she swiped her thumb across his tears and brought it to her lips.  
  
Rumple breathed out a small sigh of relief as Zelena stepped back out of his personal space a bit, only to gasp when she placed both hands back on his chest. His captor placed her hands between his vest and suit jacket then ran both of her hands outward until they reached his arms. At a silent command from the dagger, Rumple moved his arms with her so that she could shove his suit jacket off him and onto the floor behind him. The same treatment was given to his vest, and soon Rumple was left with only his shirt and tie still on. Zelena reached up to toy with his tie and Rumple was sure that it would soon join his jacket and vest on the ground, but she only smirked at him before pushing it tighter against his throat and yanking on it until he began to feel light-headed from lack of blood flow.  
  
Rumple gasped audibly and crashed forward onto his knees as he felt the dagger’s restrictions on his movements suddenly lift. He reached up to shove off her hands at his throat only to find his hands were stopped inches away from touching her, but he could at least move his neck and head away from her.  
  
“Ah, ah. I didn’t give you the privilege to touch me. That, too, must be earned.” Zelena wagged her finger at Rumple mockingly.  
  
“I can’t, breathe,” Rumple choked out.  
  
Zelena smiled, “ask me nicely.”  
  
Rumple glared stonily up at her. It was uncomfortable, but he knew he couldn’t be killed or suffer lasting damage from her choking him and eventually she would have to get bored of it.  
  
At his insolence, Zelena back-handed him harshly and started unbuttoning his shirt while he was dazed from the sudden violence. Rumple cringed backwards as Zelena exposed his bare skin. She finally stopped touching him and he breathed a small sigh of relief and leaned back away from her, leaving his shirt to gape open loosely.  
  
“Take it off,” she commanded, waving the dagger lazily.  
  
Rumple toyed with the idea of playing dumb and removing something other than his shirt, before remembering that he did have a plan and needed to play up her sense of control with the dagger. However, he couldn’t stop himself from shivering as his chest was exposed and his upper half was left clad in only his tie.  
  
“Now, what do you say?” Zelena snarled at him.  
  
Fighting the urge to wrap his arms around his upper body, Rumple clenched his hands into fists at his side and raised his chin to glare defiantly at witch once more.  
  
“I thought you were smarter than this, Rumple.” She cooed at him, “but apparently you still haven’t learned your lesson. Remove your shoes.”  
  
Rumple tried to stand up, only to feel the dagger forcing him back to his knees. Twisting awkwardly to his side, he clumsily managed to untie his left shoe and remove it before repeating the process on his right. He neatly placed both of his shoes next to his crumbled shirt and jacket before returning to gaze silently up at Zelena once more, swallowing hard in response to her satisfied smirk.  
  
“This will continue until you ask me to stop, doll.”  
  
The humiliation of being slowly stripped of his clothes and his power along with them caused Rumple’s icy veneer to crack and he snarled out, “I’m not your doll.”  
  
“You wear whatever I want you to wear, I can manipulate your limbs however I want.” Zelena silently commanded his hands to rise in front of him as if in a prayer of supplication before letting them return to his side. “Tell me how you aren’t my doll.”  
  
Rumple bit back a threatening retort, reminding himself that he had a plan and she was playing right into it by imaging she had complete control over him. Although no amount of logic could completely silence the voices in his head screaming at him to make her bleed, to show her that he would not be cowed by her. Soon, he promised himself. Imaging all of the ways he would make her suffer once he had his dagger back in his control.  
  
“You really are a slow learner, aren’t you, doll. Remove your trousers,” the witch ordered casually.  
  
Still on his knees, Rumple shuffled around ungainly and managed to pull off his trousers, leaving him in only his underwear, socks, and with his too-tight tie around his neck dangling down his chest. Taking a deep breath, he forced himself to turn his eyes up to her, attempting to hide the fear and humiliation in his eyes with anger.  
  
“Well, doll. What do you say? You know what the next step will be.” Zelena reached out to stroke his upper thigh with the edge of her black leather boot.  
  
“Enough, please.” Rumple caved, unable to bear the thought of being exposed in front of Zelena if he could avoid it just by saying some meaningless words.  
  
In a childish voice Zelena gloated, “not quite, try again. Have you forgotten who I am in relation to you, slave?”  
  
“Mistress,” at Zelena’s raised eyebrow, Rumple continued. “Please, stop,” he snarled, glaring up at her and maintaining eye-contact throughout.  
  
Zelena clapped her hands together. “Well done! So you can learn after all. I think you deserve a reward. Would you like that?”  
  
“What I would like is for you –“, Rumple began with a growl before catching himself at Zelena’s pointed glance at his few remaining clothes, “… is to be left alone.” He finished meekly.  
  
“Oh, no, no. That won’t do at all.” Zelena reached for Rumple once more, smirking as she saw him stiffen to avoid flinching away from her hands. She trailed her hands up his chest before reaching for his tie and loosening it to a comfortable length, “there, how’s that for a treat?”  
  
Rumple stared up at her silently. If she wanted him to willingly kiss her shoes and say thank you for not continuing to choke him, she would need to threaten him with a lot more than just forcing him to go around naked. However, Zelena just smiled at Rumple’s defiance, the progress she had made earlier in breaking down his resistance was enough for today.  
  
“Well, don’t just sit there, Rumple. Give me the grand tour!” At her command, Rumple rose on his aching legs and led Zelena further into his home, having to crane his head up slightly to make up for their height difference caused by her wearing boots while he was just left in his socks.  


* * *

  
“Belle,” Bae called out as he strode into the library with Emma trailing behind him. “It’s good to see you!”  
  
Belle returned Bae’s hug, mystified at his excitement when she had seen him just a few days ago. “You as well, Neal. What’s going on?”  
  
“Neal was kidnapped yesterday. I’m leading an investigation into it and would like to ask you a few questions if you have time,” Emma responded for Bae.  
  
“Yes, of course. Neal, are you ok?” Belle gasped, “here, we can go up to my rooms to talk privately.”  
  
“I’m fine now. I’m not sure why they wanted me.”  
  
“Lead the way,” Emma followed up.  
  
Once all three were settled in to Belle’s library apartment with a glass of water for Bae and herself, Emma got down to the business.  
  
“To start, can you tell me where you were yesterday?”  
  
“I was at the library for most of the day. I went out to the park to eat lunch and when back home after closing the library for the night at around 6pm.”  
  
“Did you have any interactions with Neal?”  
  
“No,” Belle glanced over at Bae, “I didn’t see him at all yesterday.”  
  
“Did you know that he was kidnapped before we arrived at the library?”  
  
“No,” Belle made eye-contact with Emma, knowing she would be able to see the truth of her simple statement with her superpower.  
  
“Do you know where Rumple was yesterday?”  
  
“I think he was at the shop. Why? Is he one of your suspects?”  
  
“Papa was lying to us when we talked with him earlier.”  
  
“I don’t think he would ever try to intentionally hurt you, Neal.” Belle started off carefully, “But he has-, that is… I might be reading too much into it, but he br – broke up with me.” Belle’s voice cracked and her composure with it.  
  
“I’m so sorry, Belle,” Emma reached out to pat Belle’s shoulder while Bae pulled her into another hug.  
  
“Do you think they might be connected?” Bae asked Emma.  
  
“It seems likely, doesn’t it. I’m sorry to have to make you relieve it, Belle, but it could be important to bringing the kidnappers to justice. When did Gold break up with you?”  
  
“Las-,” Belle hiccuped, “last night. I was already asleep, it was dark out, but I didn’t look at the clock. I moved my stuff out this morning and he told me not to come back to the house.”  
  
“Do you remember what he said?” Emma queried as gently as possible.  
  
“He said that he doesn’t l-love me anymore… that there was a woman he used to know that he loved and that she was here now, and that his heart belonged to her.” Belle paused for a moment to wipe her face with a tissue. “I think he said her name was Selina, or something like that.”  
  
“Has he been acting oddly for a while? Did you have any gut feelings that something was off?”  
  
“No, nothing. He just woke me up and, and-,” Belle trailed off.  
  
“Right, that timing is too coincidental to not be related.” Emma ran her hand through her hair exasperatedly, “To recap: We know that Gold was lying about not knowing who kidnapped you. But, unless if he managed to twist the words around to suit his purpose, which is quite possible, he wasn’t actively involved in it. We also know that he suddenly broke up with you, Belle, last night around the time Neal was released. And, there is a mysterious woman, Selina, who has suddenly appeared.”  
  
“Did Gold say anything to you about how Selina appeared or why now?”  
  
“No, I don’t –don’t remember him saying anything about that.”  
  
“Does the name Selina ring any bells for you, Neal?”  
  
“I feel like I’ve heard that name before, but I can’t think of who it might relate to. Certainly never anyone I knew well. Besides, what would my father’s relationship with her have to do with me being kidnapped?”  
  
“I’m beginning to think you were being used as leverage. Your kidnappers clearly thought you would either be released or escape since they took precautions to ensure you couldn’t identify them. Then being released without them asking anything from you means they either must have received what they wanted in return for your release from someone else, or they were worried they were going to be found out.” Emma paused to pull out her notepad and start organizing her thoughts.  
  
“If they were worried about being found out, they likely would have been more sloppy and hurried in getting rid of you and probably wouldn’t have gone to the effort of taking you to the center of town. So, that means they likely got what they wanted, typically money.”  
  
“My father has lots of money, he could have paid.”  
  
“Yes, but that doesn’t explain why he lied to us, and also where Selina comes in. Of course, I wouldn’t have put it past Gold to lie to us just to be annoying.”  
  
“Or to cover up embarrassment. If he did have to pay a ransom for your release, he would not want people to know about it.” Belle shivered thinking back to the time she was used as leverage against Rumple.  
  
“Ok. But we still don’t know why he would break up with you at the same time.”  
  
“Perhaps he paid more than just a small ransom. Maybe he doesn’t have any money left and was too embarrassed to want to tell me? He could have made up this Selina person entirely. It’s not like he hasn’t lied to me before about things like this if he thinks it’s for my own good.” Belle theorized bitterly.  
  
“That does seem to fit. It explains why Papa seemed so sad when we visited him earlier today. If he thought he wasn’t the right man for you, he would break up with you and then revel in his misery.”  
  
“In that case, I really need to find who kidnapped you. I know your father’s brand of justice and I would rather not wake up one day to find a corpse lying in the woods.” Emma pulled out her phone to send a text to her deputies Graham and David asking them to take turns tailing Gold and watch out for him attempting to physically hurt anyone.  
  
“Thank you, Belle, for talking with us. I understand this wasn’t easy for you, but you have been really helpful.” Emma rose from the couch. “Neal, if you have the time, I would like to go over the details with you at the station one last time now that we have a strong theory as to what might have happened yesterday.”  
  
Bae and Belle clasped hands as they walked to the door with Belle commenting on how glad she was that Bae was alright and him offering to be there if she ever needed someone to talk with. Belle walked Emma and Bae down to the main floor of the library and returned to her desk to think over all she had learned as they left. If Rumple really was doing another one of his self-sacrificing acts, how could she respond to make sure he never did it again. Certainly, she should wait a few days to let him think about how foolish he had been. Maybe dropping by the house in a few days on the pretext of having forgotten something would work? She could remind him of how much she loved him, and if he still wouldn’t take the hint, perhaps it would be necessary to sit him down and remind him that no one decides her fate but Belle.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you have time (even just a 1-word comment would be great). I'm trying to get back into writing after a roughly 4 year hiatus, so any feedback would be very helpful!


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